As Ed Bailey Turns: Garish Steakhouses to Disappear. Patrizio to go Coast-to-Coast and Beyond and Stuff and Such

Ed Bailey and Co. will soon offers slices of New York Sicilian pizza.Forgive my glib, sarcastic headline but covering the ups and down of Dallas restaurateur Ed Bailey has been a time consuming wild ride. I hear a different rumor about Ed Bailey’s businesses almost every day. This week I received several notes from “inside sources.” I took the bait and ran down a story. Do you care? Read on. If not, I’m sure you can find an interesting broccoli recipe on another site.

Ed Bailey and company purchased the Uptown Bar & Grill about six months ago. According to Ken “Kesey” Kuczwaj, Vice President Brand Development of ECB Enterprises, Uptown Bar and Grill will close around November 1 and will reopen as a yet-unnamed “man-versus-food type sandwich shop.” The restaurant will have “cool cocktails” and “the greatest New York Sicilian pizza-by-the-slice you ever tasted.” More on that later.

Kuczwaj’s job is to lead Ed Bailey out of the cuckoo’s nest of grandiose steakhouses and into more manageable restaurant concepts. Like Patrizio. Today I caught up with Ken as he toured the site of the soon-to-open Patrizio Osteria in Southlake.

“The Bailey’s brand built four huge steak houses but it turns out the concept was wrong for the locations,” Kuczwaj said. “What started as a big fanfare tailed off. We looked at the numbers and it didn’t make sense. We want out of the steakhouse business.”

Soccer moms in Cedar Hill will no longer have to come up with $65 for a steak, the Bailey’s location there is in the process of closing. The Fairview BPP closed on September 8. Fort Worth, their most successful location, shuttered in early June. According to Kuczwaj, BPP on Park Lane in Dallas will stay open with “business as usual” with Ryan Carberry as the chef. “Now, our focus is on Patrizio,” Kuczwaj said. “We have investors interested. The Southlake store is our new concept for the brand. It’s about traditional, not Americanized Italian food.” Kuczwaj says the company also plans to roll out Patrizio Express stores that will feature a small menu, pizza, lunch, and take-out food.

Chef Carberry also oversees the menu at The Chesterfield downtown and he is working on the food for the yet-unnamed restaurant that will replace Uptown Bar & Grill.

“A friend of mine in New York is coming down to consult on the Sicilian pizza,” Kuczwaj said. “He triple rises the dough and hits it with sauce and cheese. It appears to be a thicker pizza but it is as light an airy as cotton candy.”

Comments

I hope he lost a lot of money. Now if we can just get him to close Patrizios HPV.

Dubious Brother

@Mike – His divorce attorney got over $7 million from him for doing nothing. That’s more than most of us can afford. I want him to succeed in the restaurant business as he creates a lot of economic activity. As for divorce attorneys ………….

DallasBirdie

Ed should just stick to what he knows.. 20+yr old Bimbo’s and fast food or maybe hire a competent Director of Operations, and people whose rap sheet’s aren’t as long the Menu.

Empire

Frozen food, that’s what he’s known for. I second the hope that Patrizio’s in HPV closes. Food is terrible – nothing like what it used to be.

Confused

Have any of these wacko bloggers googled ken kuczwaj? He is a crook and actually spent some time in prison. Patrizios was once one of my favorite Italian restaurants in town and after multiple bad experiences I have stopped going in. This city drives me bonkers with all these silly bloggers.

edtex

Went to the Patrizio’s in Fort Worth last Friday, the A/C was not working very well (if you recall it was 104 that day). They were apologetic, and relocated a small fan to our booth. But did they offer a complimentary appetizer? No. A complimentary drink? No. We should have walked out before we ordered, very poor customer treatment, and I have been a regular customer since the FW location opened. No more!

MAW

Garish?!? But they have JAZZ! lol

nota step

He creates a lot of economic activity? Tell that to the loyal employees that took on second jobs to try and make ends meet during the decline of the locations he closed. The true moment of class came when his son told the staff it was their fault his father’s victory lap was turning to his albatross.
Is there any doubt out there yet that these concepts are flailing for one huge reason STANDARDS. Basic business fundamentals include treating employees and patrons with honesty and integrity. Don’t ask employees to lie about the quality or integrity of the products served.
Seems pointless to discuss. Integrity and honesty means nothing to those people.

Borborygmus

@nota step – I would argue that the concepts are failing due to greed and ego. Three steakhouses? Start with one. Do it really well, Then, and only then, expand. And far away from your existing customer base or you risk cannibalizing your existing location.

For now he has the capital to fund a new concept in his existing leased spaces. It’s his money to blow, or trickle down, as it were.

marisa

Patrizios HPV is the WORST. The food is terrible and employees are surly. Have not been back in months and do not intend to ever return. DO NOT renew their lease. Give us a better place to eat in the Village. Ed and Jerry Jones suffer from the same disability………ego toooo big for their britches.

nota step

I believe I said flailing, like a swimmer in over their head.

Giant ego doesn’t cause business failure, but can lead to poor decision making. Patrizios has changed from what is was back in the days of jack. There has always seemed to be a lack of having systems in place and the right accountability to hold the standards in place.

Bottom line is when you don’t nurture the guest nor employee experience, the investor suffers right along with them. The dedicated employees got burned. The regular customers got burned. There are too many other options out there rather than keep buying a ticket to Bailey’s circus.

twinwillow

marisa said it all! 100% correct!

Wm. B. Travis

One HUNDRED MILLION dollars!!!

My arse.

Clinton Twiss

So many excuses in the statements from his lackeys, all adding up to one thing: Ignorance. Bailey actually had the best McDonald’s franchises in North Texas — all tidy, efficient and good-looking — before he decided that made him a restaurateur. He forgot to learn about customer habits as he moved “up.” Now if he’d just move out.

Jon dramm

Psycho kuczwaj – this ain’t Cali – people won’t fall for your lies:(

metro

Ken Kuczwaj and Mark Lindberg are both felons who bilked honest people out of millions of dollars. Look it up. In addition to closing all the Bailey’s except Park Lane, screwing up Patrizio’s, failing to maintain the Chesterfield, they’ve now run off the GM at the Uptown Bar and Grill who had been there ten years and might’ve been the only honest guy in the whole company. These people should be ashamed of themselves. They will never get another dollar from me.

Jon dramm

All I know is that Sfuzzi will put them under. I mean who puts Sicilian pizza on a menu right next door to a restaurant with a brick oven!! I bet these guys last a quarter until the tax man cometh.